A Saudi Jihadist Dies in Gaza

Yesterday, an online jihadist magazine confirmed the death of the first reported foreigner to die fighting in the current Gaza conflict. Abu Mohammed al-Marri "came from a town in easternSaudi Arabia, was a veteran of battles against Russian troops in Afghanistan and in Chechnya as well as against Serb and Croat forces in Bosnia,"according to postings on jihadi websites, culled by AFP. He "arrived in Gaza 10 days before the start of the Israeli offensive."

Afghanistan? Chechnya?Bosnia? What was a Saudi national with a Qaeda-like resume doing in Hamas’s war with Israel?

Terrorism analyst Thomas Hegghammer, writing at the essential Jihadica, suggests three possibilities, wisely cautioning that the facts are far from clear yet.

1) as a fluke - al-Marri had aPalestinian wife so he may not have been seen as an outsider; 2) as reflecting a decision by Hamas to allow in a Saudi or two to embarrass the Saudis, or 3) as reflecting a strategic decision by Hamas to accommodate more foreign volunteers.

Al-Marri wouldn’t be the first foreigner with a seeming al-Qaeda pedigree to perpetrate a terrorist attack on behalf of Hamas. In 2003, two British men, Omar Khan Sharif andAsif Hanif, students of the famous al-Qaeda-affiliated cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed, participated in a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on behalf of Hamas. Hamas declared the use of foreigners a message that it “has many options to fight against [Israel].”

But another possibility lingers: AlMarri may not have been fighting at the invitation of Hamas.

Given such an environment, it would not come as a complete surprise that, consistent with previous reports, Gaza may have played host to terrorists closer to al-Qaeda’s orientation during the recent war.

It’s important, though, not to over-interpret the al-Marri incident. His death is notable as an exception and the militant Salafi population in Gaza remains quite small. But with the possibility of an either weaker or more radical Hamas emerging from the recent fighting, the incident highlights the questions that remain over the future of terrorism in Gaza.